I am hoping someone can help me with an issue I am having with my new Canon 5D Mark iii and my Canon EF 50mm 1:14 lens.

It seems after taking a few shots with Auto focus, the lense will lose it's ability to complete auto focus and stay stuck at 0.45m. When I turn the dial manually to attempt to get the lense off of 0.45m, the focus ring that you would turn to get the lens to 3m or infinity does nothing for numerous turns at a time.

Eventually it will turn the lens but it usually takes 5 to 6 turns before the lens starts to react to the focal attempt manually to get it unstuck from the .045m position.

Also, when I am trying to use the AF and the lens is stuck in the 0.45m position, I hear a clicking that seems to be coming from the lens.

I have used a couple of other lenses with the camera since acquiring it, and these focusing issues do not seem to happen with those lenses, only the static 50mm lense.

Also, this is happening whether the camera is in Auto+ or am trying to set the camera settings manually.

Can anyone give me any pointers on what might be wrong, has the lense gone defective or is thier a possibility that the camera may have a problem.

The AF mechanism in the 50/1.4 is notoriously fragile... did you drop/ding/shake the lens a little too vigorously? Or did it do this out of the box? If it's still under warranty, I'd definitely send it in... it's definitely a mechanical failure and NOT your 5D3.

I did put the 50mm lense back on the 60D and the same issue with the lense happended as it did with the 5D.

When the lense focal was between 0.45. and 0.60, the focus mechanism would get stuck and as I pressed the shutter button half way down I just hear a slight clicking sound and the lense will not move off of the point in which it is stuck.

When I turn the focus ring manually, the lense stays stuck in the position it is in for numerous turns before the lense seems to catch and the lense will try to acheive a focus point.

So it looks like it is the lense as was pointed out by Plymer. I am glad he was right and it is not the new camera I just got. So now I have to decide which 50mm to replace it with, another 1:1.4 or a different aperature lense.

Glad that it's not your camera, but bummed that your lens is on the fritz.

If you looking to replace your lens, you could take a chance and get another Canon 1.4, save some cash and get a 1.8, OR look into the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM. I'm definitely not a huge proponent of 3rd-party lenses but I've heard amazing things about the Sigma version of this lens. It's likely better-built (ironically) than the Canon...

It could be worth calling Canon up and asking them if it's fixable and how much it would be.

If you're forced to buy a new one, the recent tests of the 50mm f/1.8 seem to show the image quality of the 1.8 is actually a bit better than the 1.4 and 1.2, although the build quality and autofocus capabilities are quite a different issue.